Vladimir Putin Defies U.S. on Edward Snowden Extradition

"They might like to have him go to sleep while they play with his computers he's brought along with him," said former White House counter-terrorism advisor and current ABC News consultant Richard Clarke. "Maybe they'd like to make him an offer. Maybe they'd like to have a conversation."

Monday Julian Assange, founder of the WikiLeaks organization, which he said is advising Snowden, was asked by ABC News if there were concerns the trove of information on Snowden's laptops could fall into the wrong hands. Without elaborating, Assange said that the material "has been secured by the relevant journalist organizations prior to travel."

Today Glenn Greenwald, a column for The Guardian who broke the first of the NSA stories based on Snowden's information, went further, telling The Daily Beast that Snowden had taken extraordinary precautions by sending highly encrypted files to several people for insurance. The recipients would only be allowed to open the file should something happen to Snowden, Greenwald said, so that the stories would still get out.

Putin reportedly said today Russian security services have not, and will not, work with Snowden.

As U.S. officials await Snowden's next move, former undercover CIA agent Emily Brandwin, who posts on Twitter under the handle @CIAspygirl, said it appears some major world powers are left playing "hot potato, hot potato."

"I think we're all just collectively waiting to see where the music stops, to see where he lands," she said. "It's the most epic game of Marco Polo ever."